If a case involves only a breach of a covenant not to compete or a confidentiality agreement, it is not within the mandatory "unfair competition" jurisdiction of the North Carolina Business Court, based on two recent decisions.
The first case is Workplace Benefits, LLC v. Lifecare, Inc, decided by the Court on July 14, 2008. In that
The Business Court had mandatory jurisdiction under N.C. Gen. Stat. §7A-45.4 over plaintiff’s lawsuit because it involved claims involving antitrust law, even though the complaint did not specifically allege an antitrust claim. It was sufficient that the claim was essentially based on a "contract in restraint of trade." The Court held:
Plaintiff has asked the
A Plaintiff has thirty days after the filing of its Complaint to file a Notice of Designation to the Business Court.
Note that this opinion was essentially overruled in August 2012.
The Defendant failed to file its Notice of Designation to the Business Court within the thirty days of its receipt of either the Complaint or the Amended Complaint, as required by N.C. Gen. Stat. §7A-45.4. The Court denied designation of the case as a mandatory complex business case due to the untimely filing, noting that
The Court threw out a securities fraud case that would otherwise have been within the scope of its mandatory jurisdiction because there were already two cases pending in Wake County making similar claims. One of those cases had already received a Rule 2.1 designation as an exceptional case. The Court found that it would be more efficient